Flinders voters have questions about plans for an import gas terminal on Western Port bay.
Photograph: Doug Steley/Alamy Stock Photo

In a few weeks, candidates in the seat of Flinders, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, will be asked a single question at a community forum: what will you or your party do about AGL’s proposal to develop a floating import gas terminal at Crib Point?

It’s a simple question but one that some candidates may find difficult to answer.

Every contender for the seat, including the sitting MP, Greg Hunt, has stated they are opposed to the development, which would moor the LNG terminal at Crib Point, near the port of Hastings.

A 55km pipeline would be built, by APA Group on behalf of AGL, connecting the development with an existing gas pipeline in Pakenham in outer Melbourne.

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Candidates expressing their opposition is one thing. But locals say they want to know what they actually plan to do about the proposal, which has emerged as a key issue for voters in the suburbs around Western Port bay.

“We understand you’re against it, but what will you or your party actually do?,” Louise Page asks.

Greg Hunt has an online petition against the project … but some are sceptical. Photograph: Alex Murray/AAP

Page is the president of Save Westernport, the community action group hosting the forum.

The group was established last year and has been fighting the proposal, which they fear will affect the Western Port wetland, an internationally significant site that supports more than 30 migratory bird species.

They have held market stalls and have a bumper sticker which Hunt, a former environment minister, has stuck on his car.

Hunt has an online petition against the project and had corflute signs made up attacking Labor over the project, which will have its environmental effects statement assessed by the Andrews state government but still requires federal sign-off.

Banks lists Crib Point as one of the top two issues she is campaigning on.

She used the dying days of parliament to lodge a petition opposing the development and asked the environment minister, Melissa Price, whether Hunt had made any representations to her on behalf of his constituents.

Price did not directly answer the question at the time. She said the AGL proposal was intended to provide a “cost effective supply” of natural gas to south-eastern Australia and would require approval from both the state and federal government.

Price’s office told Guardian Australia Hunt had passed on some constituent correspondence to the minister, but otherwise had not raised Crib Point with her.

Banks sees the development as a political dilemma for both the Coalition, which has spent years talking about a crisis in the domestic gas supply, and Labor, which at a state level has championed the project as a means to improve the reliability of gas supply in Victoria.

“You’ve got to do a bit more than putting bumper stickers on your car,” she says.

“My view is … if Labor get elected, AGL won’t be stopped. If Greg Hunt gets elected, this will be pushed to the background.

“A strong independent local member who has already taken action will ensure this issue maintains a high profile.”

Hunt has held Flinders since 2001, but Page says there is a sense in the community that there is a contest for the seat for the first time in many years.

Debate over Crib Point is being watched with this context in mind.

Even the resources minister, Matt Canavan, who has been vocal about mining projects and securing Australia’s gas supply, says: “I agree with Minister Hunt that this terminal is a bad idea.

“Greg Hunt has always expressed to me his opposition to the Crib Point terminal,” he says.

“The government is not opposed to import terminals per se, but any proposal must get the support of its local community and this proposal doesn’t appear to have that.”

Hunt, for his part, says he has consistently opposed the re-industrialisation of Crib Point throughout his career. He insists the matter is one for the Victorian government “as not only have they caused the problem but they have planning responsibility”.

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Independent Julia Banks: ‘You’ve got to do a bit more than putting bumper stickers on your car’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

“He has written to the CEO, made public statements and will continue to oppose the absurd proposition of importing gas to Victoria while failing to allow Victorians to access conventional Victorian gas.”

But environment groups have accused Hunt of “hypocrisy”.

The federal policy director of the Wilderness Society, Tim Beshara, points out that it was Hunt, as environment minister, who handed the environmental assessment process to the Victorian government via a bilateral agreement.

“The Member for Flinders may tell people on the Mornington Peninsula that he stands with them against the AGL gas plan, but as environment minister he stood together with big business and Tony Abbott in ripping up what he called ‘green tape’,” Beshara says.

“What his government called ‘green tape’ was what we would call Crib Point’s ‘environmental protections’.

“It’s all incredibly convenient that, when facing a marginal electorate, a local MP will rediscover their community’s love for the natural environment.”

AGL says it is working through the Victorian government’s environmental review process.

AGL’s senior manager of project engagement, Kelly Parkinson, says the company understands there is significant concern within Flinders and that Western Port is an environmentally sensitive area, but there is a bigger national picture.

“The market operator has stated projects like the AGL gas import jetty will be integral to alleviating the shortfall for south-eastern Australia, particularly for Victoria.”

The federal Labor party did not respond to a request for comment.

A Victorian government spokeswoman said: “While this project has great potential, it’s critical we assess its impacts thoroughly, to protect the community and the environment.”

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Labor’s candidate in Flinders, Joshua Sinclair, says he is personally opposed to the project but trusts the “state government’s EES [environmental effects statement] process is going to be done properly”.

“It’s obviously something [Hunt has] tried to use as a campaign issue because the state government is considering the environmental effects statement at the moment,” Sinclair says.

“He is trying to use that to paint it as my project.

“As an aspiring member of parliament, your number one job has got to be to represent your community. It’s my personal view [it shouldn’t go ahead] but it’s also my community’s strong view.”

The Greens candidate, Nathan Lesslie, says any new gas developments are “madness” at a time when decarbonisation is becoming more urgent.

The project is undergoing a joint assessment between the commonwealth and Victoria. Once finalised, separate decisions on whether to approve the proposals will be made by Victoria and the federal government.

The responses from the major parties may not be sufficient for Page and the Save Westernport group come 1 May, when they hold their forum.

“If we were further advanced in our renewable energy supply then we wouldn’t have to be damaging a critical wetland and putting a pipeline through our food bowl,” Page says.

“Julia Banks had the federal petition and she has been out and about talking to people about Save Westernport and making sure she stays up to date and doing what she can.

“I have very regular calls from her office, whereas I don’t have calls from Greg Hunt’s office.”